Posted on 06/05/2008 2:08:18 PM PDT by shrinkermd
WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - General Motors Corp said on Tuesday its all-electric Chevrolet Volt was on track for a launch in 2010 after the company's board approved funding for production of the high-profile plug-in vehicle.
...Unlike gas-electric hybrids such as the Prius, which run on a system that twins battery power and a combustion engine, the Volt will be powered entirely by an electric motor and have a battery that can be charged through an ordinary power socket. The Volt's on-board engine will be used only to power the battery on longer trips, GM has said.
GM is designing the Volt to run for 40 miles powered by a 400-pound lithium-ion battery pack that can be recharged at a standard electric outlet when the vehicle is parked.
The Volt marks one of the first attempts to adapt lithium-ion batteries, widely used in consumer electronics, to power a car. Toyota is also racing to market its own plug-in hybrid by 2010 using the same technology.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
It will work. The question is whether GM will still be in business after 2010.
Anyway, sign me up. I want a Volt.
I’ve got a better idea. 1 squirrel, 1 squirrel cage and a 5 year supply of squirrel steroids.
Yes, a car named the Volt. To an electronics person, it sounds like a car named the Milliamp. It can’t do 60, but it’s 0-15 mph time is 3:48. Move over gasoline!
Huh? So, is it all electric as the first sentence says or is it a hybrid as the second sentence says?
5 to 9 pm is a peak usage time.
The volt will work because the main charging of the battery will be done with the on-board generator. There will be some usage in cities where the car is only used for daily commutes, but any decent distance trips will use the onboard charging system.
If this thing gets any type of decent performance and doesn’t fall apart quickly, it may change the face of the automobile forever. An “all-electric” that can be driven on trips at 150MPG for the generator engine will be a smash as it finally breaks the “electrics have no range” barrier.
But, it will have to deliver comparable highway performance, ride, endurance, and comfort to really become an industry changing vehicle.
Rot. GM could have had an electric car out years before this, if it had really wanted to. It’s feeble earlier attempts were overpriced, under-supported, and most likely just stunts to satisfy PR.
Any halfwit could have foreseen that even a half-functional electric car would have customers beating the door down to get one.
But GM refused to see the light.
Hence : extinction.
Thank God electricity just makes itself out of nothing. s/
great fo CA, how about a MN winter?
The Volt is “all-electric” in that the batteries do all the vehicle functions. There is a small gasoline engine that runs the onboard generator that recharges the batteries when they start to lose power.
The onboard charging system will supposedly get about 150MPG. It has a 2.5-3 gal gas tank and one tank will last about 400 miles.
***GM is designing the Volt to run for 40 miles powered by a 400-pound lithium-ion battery pack that can be recharged at a standard electric outlet when the vehicle is parked. ***
I remember seeing electric autos for sale at a dealership in Tulsa, Ok in 1975. What ever happened to them?
Our college radio station broadcast at the power of 10 watts, or as they put it, 10,000 milliwatts.
There is a great deal of spare generating capacity available at night in the US of A right now. So this should have no effect at all on the electrical grid for many years to come.
The most likely inflection point is when 30-50% of your employees want to re-charge their electric car out in the parking lot of your business every day. There is far less excess generating capacity during the day. And not every company will want to pay for the additional electric bill this will generate, especially if electricity keeps increasing in price at anywhere near its current rate.
BSEE, 1979
Thats the question what happens to the batteries and their charge life after a couple of hot summers or cold winters? Plus do you need to replace the batteries in a 4-5 years at a cost of thousands of dollars? Wait till you see how much the greenies love their Prius’s when they have to replace those batteries.
Good luck. Any increases in demand for electricity are going to be hard to meet since the designation of the Polar Bear as a threatened species will halt in their tracks any attempt to build a new coal, oil, or natural gas fired generating plant. The lawsuits are on the shelves, ready to go. Not looking good for nuclear either. Probably can't bring back the horse and buggy either, what with methane emissions et al.
I think you replied to the wrong guy.
Hybrids drive their wheels with ICE and electric.
The volt only used electric to drive the wheels. It has an engine and generator to charge the battery as needed.
This is somewhere between a hybrid car and a diesel electric locomotive.
The correct term is "plug-in hybrid."
“Rot. GM could have had an electric car out years before this, if it had really wanted to. It’s feeble earlier attempts were overpriced, under-supported, and most likely just stunts to satisfy PR.
Any halfwit could have foreseen that even a half-functional electric car would have customers beating the door down to get one.
But GM refused to see the light.
Hence : extinction.”
The hold up is the battery. The Volt is a great idea but there are still problems. That battery pack that only goes 40 miles costs more than $20,000. You buy the car without the batter and continue paying to lease the battery to make it somewhat commercially viable.
There are some technologies that may make the electric car truely viable but they are still a few years down the road.
I’m impressed that GM has gone this far. And who knows, if gas is more than $5/gal then maybe that can turn a dollar with it.
The EV-1 was not feeble from an engineering standpoint.
Cutting edge aluminum chassis, very low drag, what they did was make a car go 90 miles on about the equivalent of a thimble of gasoline.
It was a limited production run with flaws such as low crash ratings and no air bags if my memory is correct. I do not blame them for crushing them with the trial lawyers.
As far as beating the doors down, maybe now, but not in the early 90's when they gave it green light.
Batteries are everything, and I do not think the Litium-Ion battery was even a pipe dream then.
Refuse to see the light? I do not think so, Best damn powertrain engineers on the planet. Hampered by contracts that ate into their margins so their was no money left for R & D yes.
New ball game with the new contracts, but the latest fuel prices commodity prices are taking the wind out of their sails as they attempt a turn around. No thanks to the House, Senate and GWB for greater CAFE, that does not help at all. In fact the Volt could make CAFE obsolete according to Bob Lutz, but that is a big concept for many to get their hands around....
Most US electricity is generated by petroleum burning. You'd have to figure from your electric bill what percentage goes into to "fueling" your car.
Good luck.
And then there's the old story about Mike Farad, Millie Amp and their risque adventure.
Remember back in the early days of the automobile the little old ladies with their electric cars?
-->We need nuclear power.<--
Someone has a graph they post when this comment pops up. The fact is that except for a very small percentage, we quit generating electricity with petroleum in the 70’s.
Most electricity is produced with home grown coal. Followed by NG, nuclear, hydro, geothermal, ect.
/johnny
This is not the case. As of 2006, oil accounted for only 1.6% of electric generation fuel in the US. Coal is almost 50%, natural gas is about 20%, and nuclear is about 20%.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation
Ohm my God, Henry! He just couldn't resistor.
My feeling is that the elites have decided to kill the private auto culture created by Henry Ford. If not kill, then stunt its growth. They want the hoi polli back on the trains and buses,or bicks and scooters, while they pass by in their limos.
As par for the course, GM: too little too late.
Electric cars coupled with the building of new nuclear power plants would be pretty nifty.
You're correct, it will work and this is probably the future of automobiles. However GM will screw it up. Guaranteed. Imagine new technology built with parts from the lowest bidder, built with "I don't take any pride in my workmanship union labor", and the non existent belligerent dealer network not being able to fix it if it breaks.
Thanks.
I can just imagine the brown/black outs that are going to hit Kalifornia when this takes off.
Not for everybody but if this can handle 40/50% of the traffic America can easily become fuel independant..
The generator-engine can’t get 150 mpg. Sorry. Generator-Engine is really what the Prius does, only very efficiently, by taking advantage of the engine to also provide power so they could use a smaller electric motor and less batteries which lowered the weight of the car.
I’m betting this car gets under 50 mpg on the highway if the generator is running. The only reason it will do better than an ordinary car is that the generator can be run at it’s optimal torque, meaning it should be able to get a little better than 30% efficiency.
You’ll still do much better charging it at night.
This is what I want for my next car. My normal daily use is really under 20 miles, with long trips once a week or so.
I still would use my Prius hybrid for our vacation trips, because I’m betting the Volt isn’t nearly as comfortable or as powerful as the Prius.
These cares would be simpler to work on too.. probably even more trust worthy.. meaning less things to go wrong.. Except for the batterys.. WOuld prepare the way for fuel cell vehicles too.. an electric fuel cell should increase the mieage too..
“It can’t do 60, but it’s 0-15 mph time is 3:48. Move over gasoline!”
Not much good for a getaway car.
I remember a lot of EV-1 owners didn’t want to give up the cars when GM ended the program. They were offering pretty large sums to buy them outright, but GM wouldn’t sell for various practical reasons.
I think the freeze/thaw cycle on batteries has to shorten their life considerably.
They won't. They'll trade them in well before the life expectancy of the batteries is reached. So they get to keep feeling good.
We hope to use less oil so that the Chinese can drill for ours in the Gulf of Mexico.
Anyone still foolish enough to think that Congress has the welfare of our country in mind?
Anyway, sign me up. I want a Volt.
Me too. I like the Idea of an Engine running at constant speed to turn a gen.
Has anyone thought through the infrastructure requirement for these cars?
Typical liberals never think through anything.
the green weenies will screw that up ,too .
**Minnesota regulators delay decision over Big Stone II lines**
http://www.twincities.com/ci_9490975?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www.twincities.com
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.